Blog Posts From The Brave Programmer

Online inauguration video's set new records. But we cannot compete with live TV just yet.

Jan22

Written by:2009/01/22 07:54 AM

With many workers in the US were stuck at their desks during the late-morning swearing-in of President Obama on Tuesday, more people than ever went online to watch live video of the historic inauguration. But live streaming failed.

With many workers in the US stuck at their desks during the late-morning swearing-in of President Obama on Tuesday, more people than ever went online to watch live video of the historic inauguration.

Online news sites like CNN.com, shattered online viewing records as viewers watched live streaming video online. Some sites, for the first time, carried video feeds on their front pages.

About 7.7 million people watched the inauguration on Tuesday online at the same time, according to Akamai Technologies Inc. Which is probably the single most-watched event in the history of live Web video.

During the course of the day, nearly 27 million people watched streaming video on CNN.com Live on Tuesday, according to CNN spokeswoman Jennifer Martin. That's more than five times the site's previous record, set on Election Day, with 5.3 million.

For some, the inauguration was a first-time experiment with streaming video online. The high traffic on most sites meant that it was not all smooth sailing. Some news sites' coverage froze during the inauguration, according to Keynote Systems Inc., which tracks Web performance. According to The Associated Press, The top 40 Internet sites slowed by as much as 60 percent by the time the ceremony started at 11 a.m. On CNN.com, you were shown this tongue-in-cheek message: "You made it! However, so did everyone else."

It was one of the biggest tests for live video streaming as millions watched President Obama’s Inauguration speech from the comfort of their PC's. But live streaming failed. Traditional TV broadcasters have nothing to worry about when it comes to big live events with millions of people watching at the same time. But at the moment, the Internet breaks at about one million simultaneous streams, in the US at least. In South Africa, I would venture that it is substantially less.

Will it get better. Yes, this is new ground were covering. Remember Live TV is years ahead. They also had their problems at the start, and they overcame. Live internet Streaming will overcome these issues and soon will be a viable competitor to live TV. But in South Africa, were still way behind. What with the current bandwidth costs, the Telkom monopoly, the lack of proper ADSL / Broadband technology reach, live streaming is just not an option.